Silver And Gold Have I None

In a world obsessed with wealth, sometimes it is bene-ficial to remind ourselves that there are things more precious than money.

The third chapter of Acts begins with a beautiful and touching story. It is about a “certain man lame from his mother’s womb” who is brought daily to the temple gate to beg for alms.

One day two special men, disciples and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ, come his way. He asks them for money, but to his great surprise he receives something far more valuable than what he was hoping for.

Quoting now: “And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed to them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by his right hand, and lifted him up; and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.”

Through an extraordinary miracle a man born with a serious disability was made whole. But I ask you: Is it any less of a miracle to be born whole?

If you currently are penniless--but otherwise are physically and mentally sound--stand up, walk and praise God! You are sufficiently equipped to improve your circumstances in life.

Leaves Do Not Shed Their Roots

Perhaps we should review some elemental aspects of our constitutional system of government, a system that served us well until about 70 years ago when misguided, and in some cases devious, politicians began recklessly trying to “improve” upon it.

Above all else, we must understand that the Constitution is not a creature of the federal government as some would have us believe. Rather, the federal government is a creature of the Constitution. The Constitution came first, and then the government. The government was born of the Constitution, and takes from it its unique shape and its just powers.

Ergo, no branch of the federal government, or any office growing out of it, is greater than the Constitution.

Just as the branches and leaves of a tree depend upon the roots for their stability and support, so too do the branches and offices of the federal government depend upon the Constitution for their steadiness and vitality--not to mention their authority and legitimacy.

Tree branches and leaves, however, differ from the branches of government and their respective officials in one important respect--branches and leaves understand instinctively that the continued health and vigor of a living organism is dependant upon the harmonious interaction of the component parts. In other words, branches and leaves know their place and confine themselves to their proper and appointed role in the system.

Regrettably, many public officers do not share this same keen sense of humility and teamwork. They erroneously believe that the life and splendor of our political system resides in them, not in the Constitution, and are continually attempting to disassociate themselves from it. In so doing, they foolishly jeopardizes themselves as well as the greater organism of which they are but a component part.

Conclusion: If more of our current politicians possessed the simple integrity of a leaf, America and Americans would not be facing many of the painful uncertainties and needless upheavals that now plague them.

The Constitution is the political contract Americans have agreed to live by. When grasping and unscrupulous politicians will not adhere to its terms, they carelessly undermine and corrupt the established social order, thereby endangering all of us.

In the natural world, leaves do not shed their roots. Instead, they obediently and respectfully carry out their ordained part in a beautiful and elegant system.

It’s high time those in the political world took a lesson from nature.

D-Day

People tend to forget the sacrifices others have made in their behalf.

Sixty-five years ago the fate of the world hung in the balance as dictators and tyrants engaged in a vicious and relentless struggle to dominate the globe. On the morning of June 6, 1944, soldiers of the Allied Expeditionary Force, including men from every corner of the United States, set out to break their iron grip and to free the oppressed peoples of Europe.

Four years earlier, in June of 1940, Winston Churchill uttered these stirring words to his fellow countrymen: “Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.”

History records that England did, against great odds, stand up to Hitler in those early, dark days of the war. As a result of its determined effort, precious time was bought. The United States ultimately entered the conflict and the tide began slowly to turn. By mid-1944 everything was in place to launch the final assault on fortress Europe.

Operation Overlord, or what we now call simply the D-Day landings, was the largest single-day invasion in history. As predicted by General Eisenhower, the enemy fought back savagely. Yet by day’s end, and despite a loss of over 9,000 killed or wounded, more than 100,000 men were ashore and beginning the historic march across Europe that ultimately brought Hitler and his evil regime to an ignominious end.

On this sixth day of June, 2009, let us take a moment to remember and honor those, living and dead, who took part in that titanic and fateful struggle to free the world of tyranny. They were not supermen. They were our fathers and grandfathers, uncles and cousins, friends and neighbors. They knew fear as few have, nevertheless they fought courageously.

May we take heart from their noble example and resolve to vigorously expose and resist the would-be oppressors of today, for truly the war with evil never ends.

Fragile Ecosystems

Unhealthy pollutants come in a variety of deadly forms. For in-stance, network news organizations daily befoul our channels of commu-nication with distortions and falsehoods that are endangering fragile social, political and economic ecosystems.

This insidious work is being carried out by sly spin doctors posing as journalists who inten-tionally introduce carefully crafted and highly damaging myths into our nation’s information pipeline. These dangerous fallacies then flow into homes all across America where they infect the minds of unsuspecting consumers.

Why is this such a grave problem? A society’s future is seriously jeopardized when citizens are misinformed. Consider, for example, what happened to the German people and Germany in the period just prior to and during World War II. More often than not, a misled people soon find themselves coping with devastating consequences.

So if you would like to take part in cleaning up a sorely neglected but critical part of our nation’s environment, I would like to recommend that each of you email our nation’s top news anchors and tell them to please stop poisoning our vital streams of information.

We have been told repeatedly by liberal environmentalists that preserving delicate and complex ecosystems is extremely important.

So if you haven’t received your memo from our nation’s Environmentalist-in-Chief, Al Gore, please consider this your official notification and get moving.

[T]he truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
--Joseph Goebbels